The motorcycle taxis wanted to drive me but I refused (mistake 2). They look so scary but get where they’re going. They weave in and out of traffic and make it in good time when traffic is thick. So I kept searching. But no, now there were no taxis going the right way.
I finally got in a taxi that I wasn’t positive where it was going, but he assured me to get in (mistake 3). The taxi turned well before my stop, so I asked again where it was going. He finally stopped and let me off. He wasn’t going anywhere near where I needed to go. So I started walking again back in the direction I came from. There were few taxis on the road.
I finally got on one and the man was very clear it went to the Nakawa taxi park where I needed to be (mistake 4). When we got to the road where I started, he turned the wrong direction. He brought me back to where I started before I demanded to get off. I was glad I had hitched a ride to the store the day before otherwise I would not have known where I was going and would have ended up in the way way wrong place.
Finally I got onto a taxi that was going where I needed to be. Thank goodness. When I got to the taxi park, I had 1 hour left to get to Entebbe where my boat would leave for Ngamba Island. I got on the taxi and we took off right away, thank goodness. As we started driving, I realized I would be late, but since my cell phone isn’t working anymore, I couldn’t call and tell them. We stopped and let people off/on the entire way to Entebbe. The 45 min ride took about 1.5 hours. I was getting antsy, but the taxi man didn’t care. I never said anything, but I must have looked distressed because he eventually said to me, “Just be patient.” Easy for him to say, he’s not rushing to a boat that leaves on time. By the time he let me off, I was already 15 minutes late.
I thought the education center was about 500 meters, so I decided not to get on the motorcycle waiting for me who wanted to charge me more than 3 times the price of my 1.5 hour taxi ride just to go down the hill (mistake 5). I started down the hill at a good pace. It was much farther away than I had realized and by the time I got to the gate, I was over a half hour late. The boat had waited, but just left. GREAT! Now what do I do?
I looked around and decided to go to the Uganda Wildlife Educational Center/Entebbe Zoo. I walked in and wandered around. It was a nice zoo with tons of animals. They were in little habitats instead of cages which I thought was very nice. There were free roaming monkeys everywhere and I was almost run down by some camels walking down to the beach where I splashed around in Lake Victoria and watched some monkeys playing in the trees by the shore. After a while I wandered around and watched the rhinos as they were fed and saw some of the other animals during their feeding as well.
I eventually found the chimpanzee area. There was a couple just hanging out there so I sat down and watched the chimps for a while as well. There were about 3 chimps chilling in their area. One was hanging out in the crux of the tree while one was lounging on the ground and 1 was hanging on the ropes. They were so fun to watch and 2 of them were playing around a little bit, but nothing too extravagant. It didn’t feel weird sitting there since there were other people too. I’m glad I did because after about 45 minutes, there was quite some big excitement. It was feeding time. I watched as the zookeeper threw apples and other tasty items over the river into their area. They chimps were so fun to watch. Some were very greedy and hoarded the food. Others hung back and waited their turn. Some ate right there while some when up the tree and others went off on their own to find a quiet spot to eat. After the feeding, I headed out to see some more. There were several school groups and several families making their way through the zoo as well.
As the clouds rolled in, I decided to head out. I wanted to go the botanical gardens, but decided I needed to get out before the rain. I walked up the road and found a woman selling some things on the side of the road. I stopped and talked with her for a bit and bought a few necklaces that she had made to sell. Then I got on the taxi and made my way back from Entebbe to Kampala. Just before we got to the city center, it stated to rain. I’ve not seen it rain so badly in a long time. We came to a stop when the roads were so flooded that no one could make their way through.
But…the stubborn bad driving men in Uganda didn’t let that stop them and we trudged through the water. It was over the wheels of most of the vehicles, yet the motorcycles, taxis, and cars kept going. The people riding bicycles mostly stopped and the people were trying to get out of the water by stepping up into the shop doorways. I finally got out of that taxi and onto another that would take me to the taxi park where I could catch yet another taxi to the backpacker. Today was definitely a make the best of a day gone wrong kind of day.
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